I got my first panel speakers in November 2013, Magneplanar 1.7s. The first
thing I noticed is how *noisy* all my previous speakers had been--noisy with
cabinet vibrations and enclosure turbulence. The Maggies put out a much
cleaner sound without all the drama of trying to contain and manage the
backwave. Even though my previous main speakers were constructed to
recduce cabinet noise as much as possible (curvilinear enclosure, extensive
chambering and bracing, no parallel cabinet surfaces whatsoever), the
Maggies that replaced them made me realize that I'd been listening through
a pile of low-level noise all that time.
This makes perfect sense; a driver is putting out the same amount of sound
to the front as to the rear. The front waves fill the listening room; with a box
speaker, the rear waves are all supposed to be inaudibly contained in a
relatively small box, the speaker enclosure.
Furthermore, with box enclosures, the rear waves of the big drivers bounce
off the back of the enclosure and affect the forward motion of the very same
drivers. With panel speakers you get *none* of that: the rear wave dissipates
into the room at large. The panel frame does not have to tame and contain
the back waves.
Panel speakers are line sources; as was pointed out previously, line sources
only lose 3dB per doubling of the listening distance vs. 6dB for point
sources.
Panel speakers have advantages in coherence, as all frequencies emanate
from the same plane, and the rise time of all frequencis is within a tighter
range.
Panel speakers have large radiating surfaces, which means diaphragm
motion is very small, which reduces the artifacts of inertia, such as overshoot
and ringing.
Being dipolar, panel speakers have a figure-8 radiating pattern, with self-
canceling voids to the sides. This significantly reduces the sidewall bounce
so typical of dynamic speakers.
I have also found the dipolar radiation pattern to be an advantage in bass
control. While deep bass may need a subwoofer, the bass in the 100-200 Hz
range is much cleaner and easy to manage, thanks to the self-canceling rear
wave. You just don't get that annoying upper bass "hump" so
typical of floorstanding speakers, and less need for corner bass traps to
manage it.
thing I noticed is how *noisy* all my previous speakers had been--noisy with
cabinet vibrations and enclosure turbulence. The Maggies put out a much
cleaner sound without all the drama of trying to contain and manage the
backwave. Even though my previous main speakers were constructed to
recduce cabinet noise as much as possible (curvilinear enclosure, extensive
chambering and bracing, no parallel cabinet surfaces whatsoever), the
Maggies that replaced them made me realize that I'd been listening through
a pile of low-level noise all that time.
This makes perfect sense; a driver is putting out the same amount of sound
to the front as to the rear. The front waves fill the listening room; with a box
speaker, the rear waves are all supposed to be inaudibly contained in a
relatively small box, the speaker enclosure.
Furthermore, with box enclosures, the rear waves of the big drivers bounce
off the back of the enclosure and affect the forward motion of the very same
drivers. With panel speakers you get *none* of that: the rear wave dissipates
into the room at large. The panel frame does not have to tame and contain
the back waves.
Panel speakers are line sources; as was pointed out previously, line sources
only lose 3dB per doubling of the listening distance vs. 6dB for point
sources.
Panel speakers have advantages in coherence, as all frequencies emanate
from the same plane, and the rise time of all frequencis is within a tighter
range.
Panel speakers have large radiating surfaces, which means diaphragm
motion is very small, which reduces the artifacts of inertia, such as overshoot
and ringing.
Being dipolar, panel speakers have a figure-8 radiating pattern, with self-
canceling voids to the sides. This significantly reduces the sidewall bounce
so typical of dynamic speakers.
I have also found the dipolar radiation pattern to be an advantage in bass
control. While deep bass may need a subwoofer, the bass in the 100-200 Hz
range is much cleaner and easy to manage, thanks to the self-canceling rear
wave. You just don't get that annoying upper bass "hump" so
typical of floorstanding speakers, and less need for corner bass traps to
manage it.